Planning a Pony Room: Tips from the Pros?

[Sebby6]

My on recommendation perhaps at the start is to calculate your space. I have done this wrongly a couple of times before the pony room was complete. Work out how many shelves you have, how many ponies you have and then work out how many ponies should sit on shelves. The first time I made this error I ended up spacing ponies too far apart and ran out of space and then in the next room move I packed them too close together and ended up with one bookcase with 3/4 shelf space left. In the long run its much easier to work out how many ponies need to sit on each shelf.

I've been known to make diagrams

[hathorcat]

My on recommendation perhaps at the start is to calculate your space. I have done this wrongly a couple of times before the pony room was complete. Work out how many shelves you have, how many ponies you have and then work out how many ponies should sit on shelves. The first time I made this error I ended up spacing ponies too far apart and ran out of space and then in the next room move I packed them too close together and ended up with one bookcase with 3/4 shelf space left. In the long run its much easier to work out how many ponies need to sit on each shelf.

I've been known to make diagrams

OMG! Why have I never taken it to this step! This is genius. I was planning clean and accessory sort this summer, I am so drawing everything out before I do this. And it will even make ponies easier to find when they are in place. Thanks honey

[Rosette]

My organizational system, thus far, is pack ponies onto shelves and get more shelves when I run out of room.  . My daughter moved into what was my pony room at THIS house and so a lot went into boxes for storage.  I appreciate the advice to plan ahead for spacing.  That's not the sort of proactive planning I would have thought to do on my own.  I would have put shelving on every available wall space and started loading with little plan in place. 

So much to think about!

[Stormness_1]

I don't have a pony room yet, but I do have a high bench with a bar-stool-esque chair for my computer desk, and I keep a few of those cheap colourful plastic drawer sets under it. In past homes I've also placed them in wardrobes. They're a good height for standing ponies, and are great for unsorted accessories as well. I originally bought them because I was at uni, and I could pull them down and move easily, and I would just assemble them in my room. I gave them away when I was done moving around after uni, but I bought another two for wedding stuff storage when all off that was going on, it worked well for invitations, save the dates, rsvp's, table arrangements, planners, magazines, inspiration books... everything that needs to be easy to find when you're planning - and have since kept them for ponies and horse stuff. The shelves aren't very stable, and I wouldn't put anything on top of them, because the top tends to be concave, but they fit perfectly in many small spaces, and as you can re-assemble them you can cut them down if the whole set of drawers doesn't fit heightwise someplace. The matching cute little craft drawers are great for small accessories, too.. although mine currently house my browband bling, lol..

[halicabi]

I am by no means an expert, but my advise would be to make sure you take into account the baseboards (if you have them).

I can't tell you all how many times, I've measured the area, bought the bookcases, shelving units, etc, built them, then come to realize my calculations were off because I forgot about the baseboards.

Of course, I have a mixture of units purchased over the years, but I've tried to find items to maximize the space:
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I've run out of wall space, so have now moved to having 4 3-shelf bookcases back-to-back to create more space (and the hole in the middle serves as storage space too).  By placing cardbord (from the bookcase box) over the hole, I have more display space.
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Good Luck in your new space.  Mine is still a work in progress going on 7 years now.

halicabi

[Elfpony]

Having just moved a few months ago I'm just beginning rebuilding my pony room from scratch and this time I'm sharing with my Roomy who collects motu stuff. I'm slowly going to be upgrading to Billy bookshelves they really are the best value for your dollar. Plus I live five minutes from an ikea so you can't get more convenient than that.

Chest of drawers - my god that's brilliant!  I don't know how I didn't think of that before. I'm going to have to find somewhere to fit that in. My new pony room is less than half the size of the old one, but the space is easier to utilize and it's going to be more organized. You can see some pics of my (limited) progress in my blog (click on my signature.)

The one recommendation I'd make is to chose a room with a closet. You just don't know how much stuff you have to store until you have nowhere to store it. I keep my back cards and boxes in there - stuff I want to keep but hats larger and I don't necessarily need to see all the time.

Elf